August 2019 – Requirements of Distributors Continuously Evolve

Published on: 14/08/2019

OEM and EMS customers need their distributors to help cut costs, reduce time to market and help solve component allocation issues

Distributors of all sizes, no matter how big or small, know they have to do more than sell components if they want to increase sales, retain existing customers and recruit new ones.

Requirements of Distributors Continuously Evolve

Alongside stocking the components their customers need, distributors also need to help them compete in the marketplace by trying to reduce total costs and bringing new products to market quickly. Over the past 12 months, distributors have had to focus closely on helping to manage long lead times and component shortages.

Distributors are now often relied upon for added value services such as supply chain assistance, inventory management and design services. OEM’s and EMS providers rely heavily on information sharing from their distributors, they expect regular market updates, product long lead time and pricing reviews. Distributors are the go-to specialists for technical support and expertise, and customers need to be able to access the data quickly and easily on the phone and online.

Customers require datasheets, part numbers, market data, tutorials, design tools and industry or product articles to understand the most technically fit, cost effective solution to meet their requirement. It’s not just the big name distributors that can provide services that help customers reduce time to market. In fact, some customers prefer to use SME distributors for a more personalised experience and dedicated account management.

At GD Rectifiers, we help customers to reduce costs by carrying inventory for them based on scheduled forecasts. We work with several customers on annual component usage and forecasts for the coming years, we’re then able to plan and put in place scheduled orders over the year to meet their demand, stocking all of their requirements at our 12,000 sq.ft warehouse, freeing up space at their offices. By doing this we’re able to shorten our customers lead times because the stock is already on our shelf, save customers money and protect them from regular price increases because the stock is ordered far in advance from the factory and provide customers with the ability to bring orders forward, reacting to real-time demand.

We also offer a boutique type service when customers have a new design, we understand what they need and work closely with them to provide technical support, engineering expertise and alternative solutions if possible. We understand that there is no one-size-fits all solution to satisfy our customers requirements. Some customers prefer to meet in person and have regular updates with our sales and technical teams whereas others prefer to shop purely online or over the phone and are not interested in meetings.

At GD Rectifiers we pride ourselves on driving the solution that best fits the customers instead of driving one particular manufacturer over another. Over the past year OEM’s and EMS providers have relied heavily on distributors to support their supply chain because of the current market conditions. With the shortages and allocations of semiconductor and passive components, many buyers are continuously looking to distributors for shortage parts or alternative components and solutions. We partner with leading power electronic component manufacturers such as IXYS, Littelfuse, Eaton Bussmann, Mersen and Enerdoor and stock a wide range of circuit protection, passive and semiconductor components.

Our number one priority is to service our existing customers and make sure they are taken care of. We want them to know that we are experiencing the market conditions with them and want to continue working with them when the market resumes to its normal state. We are spending more time than ever on the phone to customers discussing shortage parts, exploring possibilities of second sourcing and alternatives. We think we’re in a good position to advise customers because we know the strengths and weaknesses of our product range and where the technologies are going.

For further information on our extensive product range and the services we provide, please call: 01444 243 452 or email: enquiries@gdrectifiers.co.uk.